Measurement of loads in thrust bearings has been a difficult problem. Sensing pressures on bearing pads by means of pressure transducers mounted on the bearing pad surfaces has been used to measure pressure profiles for comparison with theory. However, use of pressure transducers in field bearings to measure total bearing load has not been successful. The principle difficulty has been local peaks and valleys which occur in the pressure profiles particularly in the narrow clearance regions where the pressures are highest. Such peaks and valleys introduce unknown variation in the relationship between sensed pressure and load. Typically, it would, require a significant number of probes in each bearing pad surface to obtain a measure of the average pressure relating to the load. It will be appreciated that in tapered land bearings, the rotation of the thrust runner causes the lubricant film across the bearing pad surface to decrease in thickness in a circumferential direction, for example, down to one mil at the flat land of the pad surface preceding the next oil supply groove. Pressure variations thus occur both radially and circumferentially, rendering quite difficult the measurement of an average pressure on the load bearing thrust face.